Viz...it should be a dandy of a game. I think DU is better off going with Sam in net. He's been in this position before and won. Jussi has had a great year but I think he's been jittery the last half of the season.

BTW...seeing that I was present at the earlier meeting between DU and UNH...the Pios got off to a 3-0 start before collapsing. I think Mike Chambers of the Post is adamant about how this game started, but he's wrong.

WildShawn

03-26-2013, 04:13 PM

These 2 teams met 12/1/12.
DU took a 4-0 lead and UNH scored the next 6 goals.

DeSmith started and gave up the three quick goals and was pulled in favor of Wyer who played great the rest of the way earning the win. UNH scored to make it 3-1 before DU went up 4-1

vizoroo

03-26-2013, 04:44 PM

"No team has a better home-ice advantage in the four regionals than New Hampshire. While the Wildcats have struggled with only four wins since Feb. 1, they have Casey DeSmith between the pipes and a balanced offense. DeSmith topped most NCAA goaltender statistics during the first half of the season to give UNH a hefty cushion in the late-season national ranking to assure an at-large tournament bid.

Denver ranks No. 3 in team offense, but struggles defensively. The Pioneers also spend a significant percent of the game in the penalty box -- they're third in the NCAA at more than 16 penalty minutes per game. They need to score early and often, which they can do -- they had 13 players reach double-digits in points."

http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=662124&navid=nhl:topheads

:o believed Mike Chambers on the scoring start
and for some reason I thought Wyer started for UNH. :o

du78

03-26-2013, 05:04 PM

I like DU's chances in this regional. They have faced every team and there will be no surprises by a team they are unfamiliar with. DU has had good success in the past against UNH in the NCAA playoffs. In 1995, DU beat UNH 9-2 and in 2005 they beat them 4-2. Those games were in Amherst and Worcester, Mass. Overall, DU is 9-4-0 against UNH.

COHockey

03-26-2013, 05:06 PM

These teams met 24 November. With nearly 18 weeks have past since they last played against each other, a lot has happened, but here is the box score (http://www.uscho.com/box/mens-hockey/2012/11/24/new-hampshire-vs-denver/) and game recap (http://www.uscho.com/recaps/2012/11/24/downing-goumas-hat-tricks-propel-unh-to-come-from-behind-win-over-denver/).

What has happened? For starters this was the weekend that the chunk in DU's armor was well exploited but both Yale and UNH, and by many other teams since. Up until this point, DU looked scary good. On a similar vein, UNH was scary good for a good month after this game, but some disappointing play has been apparent in the last half of the season.

This was one of the games I was not looking forward in being paired with, realistically I cannot predict a DU win, but I'm hoping for enough D in front of Sam or the Suomilaander to allow Denver to be competitive.

There's been little talk from the UNH faithful. Wazzup with that?
Didn't LaLeggia decommit from UNH to go to Denver? At the very least there should be some talk about UNH smacking his sorry arse all over the New Hampshire ice. :D
FWIW, I think the SMT's have a good shot at coming out of this regional. Delay the Umiliation until Pittsburgh. ;)

GoUNH

03-26-2013, 07:09 PM

I made the trip to Denver in November, woke up violently ill the day of the game (ill, not hungover :)), and was not able to make the game. Its somewhat of a consolation to be able to see the Pioneers in Manchester. As long as they lose.

ClOuD 9

03-26-2013, 07:11 PM

There's been little talk from the UNH faithful. Wazzup with that?
Most of the UNH talk has been confined to our thread and predates the creation of this one (which wasn't until today). Any Denver fans making the trek out? I remember there being some, but not many, in Amherst when we played you in the NCAA's there.

duper

03-26-2013, 07:34 PM

I'm not going to predict anything in this tournament. I truly believe that when Denver is on, there is no team in the country that they can't beat handily. But there seems to be no way to predict whether or not they will be on in any given game. Neither a first round trouncing nor a national championship would shock me at this point.

du78

03-26-2013, 07:36 PM

Most of the UNH talk has been confined to our thread and predates the creation of this one (which wasn't until today). Any Denver fans making the trek out? I remember there being some, but not many, in Amherst when we played you in the NCAA's there.

I thinks some DU alums from Maine are making their way to Manchester. Assistant Coach Matty Thomas is from NH so I expect his parents and friends to be there as I am sure some of Coach Lassonde's relatives and friends. Thomas' younger brother, Andrew, was DU's captain in 2007/08.

Verkligen

03-26-2013, 07:37 PM

Most of the UNH talk has been confined to our thread and predates the creation of this one (which wasn't until today). Any Denver fans making the trek out? I remember there being some, but not many, in Amherst when we played you in the NCAA's there.

Very few Pioneer fans in Albany 2010 as I recall.

Fishhawk

03-26-2013, 07:54 PM

There's been little talk from the UNH faithful. Wazzup with that?
Didn't LaLeggia decommit from UNH to go to Denver? At the very least there should be some talk about UNH smacking his sorry arse all over the New Hampshire ice. :D
FWIW, I think the SMT's have a good shot at coming out of this regional. Delay the Umiliation until Pittsburgh. ;)

Theory: UNH fans are cautiously optimistic at best and disgusted at worse. This is a team that was unstoppable before the Xmas break. They anihilated Lowell, looked like they weren't even in the same league. They had the easiest schedule in HEA their last 6 games of the season and only managed 2 wins. Their showing aginst Maine the last two games of the season was embarrassing, their coach failed them. They weren't much better against Providence in the QFs. If UNH beats Denver their fans will jump back on the bandwagon but until then expectations are low.

ClOuD 9

03-26-2013, 08:19 PM

I'm not going to predict anything in this tournament. I truly believe that when Denver is on, there is no team in the country that they can't beat handily. But there seems to be no way to predict whether or not they will be on in any given game. Neither a first round trouncing nor a national championship would shock me at this point.
Perhaps these teams are not too different then, I think a lot of UNH fans would have described their team's first half performance much the same way; but like you we're not really sure which team is going to show up, nor have we been for the past few months. Of course, the hope is that they've used the time since getting knocked out of the Hockey East tournament to get refreshed and focus on being able to perform again like they did in the first half of the season.

Their showing aginst Maine the last two games of the season was embarrassing, their coach failed them. They weren't much better against Providence. If UNH beats Denver their fans will jump back on the bandwagon but until then expectations are low.
I thought we looked much better against Providence than we did against Maine - obviously we didn't win the series, but we got the 4-1 win in game 2 & game 3 was pretty close. Providence has a very good goaltender and we screwed ourselves by going to the box too many times in the last game (tying goal & game winning goal were both PPGs), but all in all I thought they looked much better comparatively than the week before. Still room for improvement, still need to get traffic in front of the net and some other things, but there were definitely positives to take away from it.

du78

03-27-2013, 08:39 AM

DU leaves today to head to Manchester. Good luck to the boys!!!!

JB

03-27-2013, 09:12 AM

DU leaves today to head to Manchester. Good luck to the boys!!!!

Per News 9 (in NH) the NCAA charter for DU stops to pick up WISCO along the way to Manchester. For some reason I find this really entertaining.

My question is regardless of outcomes do the teams get to fly back together?

rickkyboy

03-27-2013, 10:01 AM

Since its a charter, my guess would be yes. regional final is the next day anyway.